Axolotls, Bearded dragons and Frogs...oh my!
It's been a busy month for both The Reptile Room and our Rescue Room with four new surrenders, countless new frogs and two rehouses!
Where to start? After the tortoises all found their homes last month we were inundated with calls for the rescue of turtles and snakes, now we are not set up to take in either but that didnt stop us from facilitating the emergent rescue and rehoming of TEN turtles and THREE large snakes. Even if I can't physically help by taking reptiles into our rescue room I wont turn away a genuine call for help.
Having said that we were still able to bring four beasties into The Reptile Room; a pair of Bearded dragons and a pair of Axolotls. They came here for the exact oposit of reasons; the beardies were kept in horrific conditions, were rescued by a good summariton and surrendered here into our care, where as the axolotls came from a wonderful home whos owner had fallen on hard times and chose the responsible choice of surrendering her much loved lotls to our care.
So lets meet the new arrivals......
The Bearded dragons
Drogon and Viserion came in terrible condition after spending their entire lives together in an aquarum with no hides or access to UVB, absolutely covered in faeces and very cold. Drogon, the larger of the two, has an underbite, where as Viserion was emaciated. Both have kinks in their tails due to MBD (metabolic bone disease.
We bathed them, separated them, gave them the correct housing, heating, lighting and food for the first time in their lives and after just two weeks with us they have significantly improved.
They eat really well - not fussy at all; a lot of bearded dragons can be fussy eaters and fixing bad feeding habits can be very challenging with them, thankfully these two are great eaters. They plough through their veggies and are smashing bugs with their lightning fast hunting skills. They are doing so well that after just two weeks they have completely decimated my locust colony and so I've had to set up a dubia roach farm just for them!
They were hungry!
And here they are now - Drogon on the left, Viserion on the right - quite the turn around!
They will stay with us for another few weeks until they are well enough to be placed up for adoption, I dont anticipate having any problems finding them homes as they are fantasic little beasties - they have the funniest personalities, are easy to handle, enquisitive and constantly looking for attention.
It's actually quite amazing how sweet and easy they are to care for....which is maddening because there was absolutely no excuse for anyone to let them get into that condition. I'm so so grateful our good samareton was able to get them to us just in time.
Axolotls
Next to arrive (literally the next day) were Marble and Blackberry, two female axolotls. Their owner was distraught at the thought of surrendering them but as her personal circumstances had changed dramatically she knew that she was no longer in a position to care for them and so delivered them to us. Once I saw the wonderful condition they were in, saw pictures of their 250 litre live planted tank that they were raised in, and upon seeing her reaction to leaving them I couldn't part her from her beloved pets, especially as she had 100% done the right by them. So instead of taking them into our rescue for rehoming we have offered free boarding until she can get back on her feet.
Now the tricky bit - when we agreed to take them in I was under the impression that they were both male but upon closer inspection they are definitely both female. We have one axolotl tank housing Antonio, our male axolotl.
We dont usually condone keeping mixed sexed axolotls in the same tank as they will inevitably breed but i'm more than experienced enough to know what to look out for so we decided to allow it....just this once!
Frogs
Now, back in The Reptile Room we have had a frog explosion!
Our trio of Dendrobates Auratus Super blue dart frogs have filled just about every deli cup I have with tadpoles! I have 16 tads from them so far, as well as three Ranitomeya Variabilis Southern I'm growing out. I'm running out of space for the tubs!
In a stroke of perfect timing three of our four Ranitomeya Reticulata tadpoles successfully morphed out into froglets and so needed to be moved into their own vivarium...this happened the same week that we completed work on Bonnie and Beaus vivarium. So all change.
Bonnie and Beau, my breeding pair of Dendrobates Tinctorious Tumucumaque have grown up to become the largest of all of my dart frogs, and until this week they had been living in a 60x45x45 wide vivarium - not suitable for aboreal frogs of their size. I'd been working on their new vivarium for a while but an unfortunate streak of bad luck slowed work down on the project. But it's done now, and they have happily moved into their new home.
So, back to my Ranitomeya Reticulata babies; with Bonnie and Beau moved over Coral, tadsCrimson and Clover were able to claim the spare vivarium as their new home - look how tiny they are! It's going to be a while before I can easily spot them here! But oh they are so beautiful!
So there you have it, all up to date. I can only imagine what's next, and with the September Reptile show coming up fast it really could be anything!
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